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DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

Bianculli's Blog

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

The Cold Light Reader

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Dateline Donovan
Contributors

DAVID HINCKLEY

All Along the Watchtower

ED BARK

Uncle Barky's Bytes

ALEX STRACHAN

TV That Matters

MIKE HUGHES

Open Mike

ED MARTIN

Ed Martin's TV Mix

KIM AKASS

Aerial View

MONIQUE NAZARETH

MNtv

BILL BRIOUX

TV Feeds My Family

ROGER CATLIN

TV Eye

GARY EDGERTON

Must-Click TV

TOM BRINKMOELLER

Raised On MTM

GERALD JORDAN

Crossing Jordan

NOEL HOLSTON

The Grassy Noel

TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
2008
Jul
30
I COME TO BURY "ELITEXC SATURDAY NIGHT FIGHTS," NOT TO PRAISE IT By David Bianculli
 
 
I try, I really do, to take a positive approach to TV criticism -- to get more joy from finding and celebrating the good than from gang-tackling and mutilating the bad. But sometimes, a show is so bad that its failure is, as Martha Stewart would say, is a good thing...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2008
Jul
29
NO, YOU'RE NOT DELUSIONAL -- THE TV IN TV WORTH WATCHING IS FLICKERING ON! By David Bianculli
 
 
Part of me wanted to say nothing, so you'd all think you'd gone mad... especially since, until and unless a few more bugs are worked out, it may be a one-time thing. But today, TV WORTH WATCHING finally implemented something my website designer worked up a few months ago...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2008
Jul
29
FLICK PICKS: '70S WESTERNS By Diane Werts
 
 
"A picture of the west that is at once romanticized and surprisingly decrepit." Could we be speaking of Deadwood? Actually, look back 35 years...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2008
Jul
28
HOT SPOT: SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SCRIPTWRITER! By Diane Werts
 
 
Whew. I'm just back from two weeks at the L.A. press tour, where TV critics heard all about the networks' fall plans for scripted shows. Which makes it all the more depressing to look through tonight's network listings and find . . . reality crap...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2008
Jul
28
FOR "X-FILES" MOVIE BOX-OFFICE RETURNS, THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE - AND IT'S BRUTAL By David Bianculli
 
 
Just as in Vegas: you bet too often, you get too cocky, you lose big. Buoyed by my relatively accurate predictions for the opening-weekend box-office totals for the "Sex and the City" and "Get Smart" movies, I returned to the table to bet again, on the summer's third and final TV-to-film offering, "X-Files: I Want to Believe"...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2008
Jul
25
AMC'S "MAD MEN" RETURNS -- AND ONCE AGAIN, IT'S A BLAST FROM THE PAST By David Bianculli
 
 
I hope Matthew Weiner, the passionate and innovative creator of AMC's Mad Men, won't take this the wrong way, but I've found errors in his fabulous period drama about Madison Avenue ad-agency employees in the early 1960s. Of course, to find them, I had to visit the set, poke around, and look closely. Very, VERY closely...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2008
Jul
23
ANOTHER BOX-OFFICE GUESSING GAME: X (FILES) MARKS THE SPOT, BUT WHICH ONE? By David Bianculli
 
 
Okay, gang. I've held dinky little contests to see which TV WORTH WATCHING reader comes closest to the opening-weekend box-office totals for the TV-to-movie versions of "Sex and the City" and "Get Smart." Now it's time for the third and final small-to-big-screen effort of the summer, and another guessing game -- this time with "The X-Files"...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2008
Jul
22
A PERSONAL HISTORY OF, AND FAREWELL TO, TCA PRESS TOUR By David Bianculli
 
 
I'm back -- a little early since it ends today, but I'm back. Back from the latest Television Critics Association press tour, the highlight of which was the 24th (and, so far, best) TCA Awards show Saturday night. I'm a little fatigued, a little proud, and, since this most likely was my last time on press tour, a little nostalgic...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2008
Jul
20
TCA AWARDS PRESENTATION: THE MAKERS AND WATCHERS OF QUALITY TV SHARE THE LOVE By David Bianculli
 
 
Saturday night at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, the 24th Annual Television Critics Association awards were handed out in a memorable, enjoyable ceremony that isn't televised -- and is all the better, and rowdier, for it...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2008
Jul
18
"DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES" TIME-JUMP INSPIRED BY "LOST" FLASH-FORWARD By David Bianculli
 
 
Of all the news emanating from the Television Critics Association press tour after the Emmy nominations were announced and dissected, the nugget I found most interesting came from "Desperate Housewives" creator Marc Cherry, who admitted he got the idea for last May's season cliffhanger by watching another ABC show...
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
New From TVWW

PBS' 'Frontline’ Examines Pension Promises and — Spoiler Alert — Finds the Math Doesn’t Add Up
By Alex Strachan
 
 
 
 
The Decadence of ‘Versailles’ Comes to Ovation
By David Hinckley
 
 
 
 
Prescribing Mamie Gummer in 'Emily Owens, M.D.'
By Ed Bark
 
 
 
 
Looking for a Free Ride? HBO Can Deliver
By Christy Slewinski
 
 
 
 
'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy
By Noel Holston
 
 
 
 

Dispatches From TVWW

'Extinction: The Facts' is a Sobering Call to Action
By David Hinckley
 
 
 
 
How 'Mayans' Has Been Influenced by the Show's Creator Elgin James
By Mike Hughes
 
 
 
 
For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Take on Ernest Hemingway, the Man and the Myth
By Alex Strachan
 
 
 
 
In the Final Season, Sutton Foster's Liza is Now the Genuine Version of Her 'Younger' Self
By Monique Nazareth
 
 
 
 
Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' Returns with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Boston Corruption
By David Hinckley